Method and system for linking business entities

• US 20050137899A1
• Filed: 12/23/2003
• Published: 06/23/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dun & Bradstreet Corp., DUN & Bradstreet Incorporated (Dun & Bradstreet Corp.), Hoover's Incorporated (Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: DUN & Bradstreet Incorporated (Dun & Bradstreet Corp.)
• Inventors: Davies, Robin, Stoker, Sandra
• Granted Patent: US 8,036,907 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/1.100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24565 Triggers; Constraints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/289 Object oriented databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

A corporate linkage system and method provides customers with complete, accurate, and timely lists of corporate linkage locations, including monitoring company lists for changes to location lists, matching stored locations to a company or third party list of locations, providing detailed coding on matches, and batch updates to global files.

Claims

1. A method of linking business entities, comprising:

performing a linking update for a family tree periodically;

monitoring said family tree for changes in branch locations periodically and updating linking for any change in branch locations; and

updating linking for a corporate change, upon notice of said corporate change.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said family tree has a multi-tiered hierarchy, comprising an ultimate parent, at least one subsidiary or at least one branch.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said family tree includes at least one one-up relationship.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein any linking update is made so that local and global information are consistent.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least a portion of sources for any updates are coordinated by a central coordinator and gathered from regional coordinators.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said general linking update is performed at least annually.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein said general linking update is performed for said family tree, only if said family tree is a top tree.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein updating said branch locations is performed prior to a scheduled release of data products.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein any linking update for branch locations is performed by an automated batch update process.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein said linking for said corporate change is performed within a month of said notice.

11. A system for linking business entities, comprising:

a matching component for assigning unique corporate identifiers to entities in family trees;

at least one linkage update component for performing linking updates on said family trees;

a linkage database for storing family trees;

a global repository for storing family trees; and

at least one fabrication component for fabricating a data product incorporating linkage data.

12. The system according to claim 11, further comprising:

an application database having data that is processed for a particular application.

13. The system according to claim 12, further comprising:

a data cleansing component for processing a piece of collected data prior to storage in said application database.

14. The system according to claim 11, further comprising:

a specialized update component for performing a batch update automatically in said global repository.

15. The system according to claim 11, further comprising:

a validation component for performing validation on said family trees in said linkage database.

16. A machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon to perform a method of linking business entities, said method comprising:

performing a linking update for a family tree periodically;

monitoring said family tree for changes in branch locations periodically and updating linking for any change in branch locations; and

updating linking for a corporate change, upon notice of said corporate change.

17. The machine-readable medium according to claim 16, further comprising:

automatically cascading said linking for said corporate change through a particular family tree, when said particular family tree is involved in a merger or acquisition.